Time keeping apparatus possessing sounding alarms



Dec. 28, 1965 DELADERRIERE TIME KEEPING APPARATUS POSSESSING SOUNDING ALARMS Filed June 26, 1964 Inventor:

ANDRE DELA L x RIERE United States Patent 3,225,535 TIME KEEPING APPARATUS POSSESSING SOUNDING ALARMS Andr Deladerriere, Saint-Nicolas-dAliermont, France,

assignor to Societe Anonyme: Reveils Bayard, Saint- Nicolas-dAliei-mont, France, a corporatiaon of France Filed June 26, 1964, Ser. No. 378,190 Claims priority, application France, Dec. 16, 1963, 957,293 4 Claims. (Cl. 58-46) The object of the present invention, as a new industrial product, is a time keeping apparatus such as an alarm clock, an automatic time switch on staircases or a similar apparatus, having an improved sounding alarm.

As is known apparatus of this type are in general use to give a signal to the user at a predetermined time. Such apparatus should therefore possess sounding alarms which are sufficiently loud; this is difiicult to achieve when these apparatus become smaller in size as is the tendency at the present time. Up to now sounding alarms in clocks, or automatic time switches on staircases for domestic or industrial use, have consisted of one or several pieces, internal or external, which start vibrating under the influence of an external agent; such pieces may consist of, for example, a gong, a bell, a rod, a diaphragm or similar pieces. The maximum loudness of such an alarm is audible in a particular direction which naturally depends on how the alarm device is placed in relation to the apparatus.

Compared to existing time keeping apparatus this invention oiiers considerable advantages from the point of view of the sounding alarm, by giving, in as reduced a space as is desired, .a maximum loudness in the normal direction of use, that is to say, in a direction appreciably normal to the plane of the dial on which the indications for counting time are shown.

The invention is characterised essentially in that the said alarm is itself the piece which protects and/ or, by its transparency, allows the indications on the fixed or mobile dial of the counting apparatus to be seen. This piece is known in everyday language as the glass of the apparatus, although natural glass is not the only material used to make such a piece. In the description which follows the words dial, protective piece and glass are used indiscriminately to designate this piece.

The invention thus turns into account the fact that the glass which covers the dial of an alarm clock, for example, is a relatively large-sized element, even in small apparatus, so that the dial may be easily read at a certain distance. In consequence, it can usefully play the part of a sound alarm when it is vibrated under the influence of an external device. Also, the general form of such a protective piece is usually parallel to the plane of the dial. In other words, the usual direction in which the apparatus is viewed, which is appreciably normal to the plane of the dial, is also that in which, according to the present invention, the maximum sound is heard.

The sounding alarm of the invention will therefore consist essentially of a glass as a protective piece for the dial which can be submitted to the action of a mechanical organ of the hammer type, controlled electrically or mechanically, which strikes the median zone of the said protective piece in order to make it vibrate.

The protective piece properly speaking may be made of a transparent, or even of non-transparent material. In the first case the piece consists preferably of a synthetic material having a curved shape with thinned edges, formed in such a way that it can vibrate like a diaphragm. If the protective piece is not transparent the indications of the rotating discs used to count time can be read through the windows in the said piece, these windows being regularly spaced or not.

In an advantageous form of the invention the time keeping apparatus comprises a rectilinear rod called the heart which can slide in the interior of the central rod supporting the hands or rotating discs, and which is therefore drilled out to this effect.

Descriptions follow, which have the character of illustrations and are not limitative, of a few examples of applications of the invention, in reference to the attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 represents diagrammatically the axial cross section of a sound alarm system of an alarm clock made according to the invention in which the protective glass can be made to vibrate by the action of a central piece, or heart, controlled by a hammer.

FIG. 2 shows in cross section a variant of this application in which a vibrating hammer having a suitable form may be placed into direct contact with the glass or protective piece of a time keeping apparatus having two mobile hands.

FIG. 3 is a cross section of a similar alarm system to that shown in FIGURE 2 but in which the time counting is carried out by two rotating discs, set in relation to the openings cut in the protective piece.

In FIGURE 1, the number 1 indicates the glass of the alarm clock which acts as a sound alarm and protects the dial 2. The glass 1, which is of transparent plastic material, such as that known commercially as Altuglas for example, is formed in such a way that it can vibrate when submitted to the action of the vibratory hammer 3; by the agency of the heart 5. For this reason piece 1 has a curved portion (1a) with thinned edges (1b). The driving mechanism operates when hammer 3 hits the heart 5 which slides inside the central rod 4 which supports the hands of the alarm clock and is drilled out along its length, 4a. Hammer 3 can be controlled by mechanical or electrical means. The arrow F indicates the direction of movement of the upper part of hammer 3, when the latter acts on the heart 5.

In the variant of the application shown in FIGURE 2, the glass 11 acts as a protection to the dial 12, which has two passages 14a and 14b for the hands 15a and 15b, which show the time according to indications marked on dial 12. The glass 11 may be caused to vibrate under the effect of a hammer 13 which has a suitable form.

The time keeping apparatus shown in FIGURE 3 has a protective piece 21, a dial 22 provided with two passages 24a and 24b for the supports of the rotating discs 25a and 25b. Windows 26a and 26b opposite the discs allow the dials to be read. According to the invention, the protective piece 21 can be caused to vibrate under the effect of hammer 23.

The invention is not limited to the method of putting it into effect given above as an example, but variations of it may be found without overstepping the limits of the invention.

What we claim is:

1. A sound producing apparatus for a time piece comprising; a timepiece housing, a driving mechanism in said housing, a dial member in said housing, a transparent cover fastened to said housing over said dial, said cover being adapted to produce an audible sound when vibrated, and said driving mechanism comprising a mechanical vibrating organ having a portion arranged to impart periodic vibrations to said cover.

2. The apparatus which is the subject of claim 1 in which the external cover which is adapted to vibrate consists of a central bulging zone with a thinned edge,

the saidcentral Zone coming into contact with the said organ of mechanical vibration.

3. The apparatus which is the subject of claim 1 in which the mechanical organ is formed in such a manner as to come directly into contact with the said cover.

4. The apparatus which is the subject of claim 1 in which the mechanical organ comprises a first element which is part of the driving mechanism and a second element mounted in such a way that it slides in the said casing and combined operatively with the first element, the said second element being adapted to come into contact with the central zone of the said cover under the effect of the vibration of the first element.

No references cited.

LEO SMILOW, Primary Examiner.

G. F. BAKER, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A SOUND PRODUCING APPARATUS FOR A TIME PIECE COMPRISING; A TIMEPIECE HOUSING, A DRIVING MECHANISM IN SAID HOUSING, A DIAL MEMBER IN SAID HOUSING, A TRANSPARENT COVER FASTENED TO SAID HOUSING OVER SAID DIAL, SAID COVER BEING ADAPTED TO PRODUCE AN AUDIBLE SOUND WHEN VIBRATED, AND SAID DRIVING MECHANISM COMPRISING 